The next day, as if he were
addressing the Senate and people of another State, he pronounced a high
panegyric on himself, extolling his own energy and moderation, though his
enormities were known to the very persons who were present and to the whole
of Italy, his progress through which had been
disgraced by sloth and profligacy. Yet the mob, who had no patriotic
anxieties, and who, without distinguishing between truth and falsehood, had
learnt the lesson of habitual flattery, applauded him with shouts and
acclamations, and, reluctant as he was to assume the name of Augustus,
extorted from him a compliance as idle as his previous refusal.